Various devices are known for holding and dispensing cable and other elongate material. Some of these devices comprise a container with a spool mounted inside the container. The cable or other elongate material is wound on the spool. When material is to be dispensed from the spool, the spool is intended to rotate while the outer container remains stationary. With some previously proposed dispensers, the user draws off material from the spool by pulling on a free end of the material. When the user stops pulling, the spool may continue to rotate because of the angular momentum of the rotating spool of material, especially when the material is heavy, such as metal wire or fiber optic cable. This can result in the outer turns of wire on the spool becoming slack, and becoming trapped between the spool and the container and/or wrapped round supports for the spool inside the container, so that the material jams next time the user attempts to draw some off.